The New York State Bar president, Vincent E. Doyles III says non-lawyer ownerships in law firms "is worthy of serious consideration" but was adamant on pointing out that New York State Bar Association is opposed to non-lawyer ownership of law firms. The Wall Street Journal article mentioned that when this was first brought up about 10 years ago by the big 5 accounting firms looking at acquiring law firms, an ABA commission sided with the accounting firms. But many bars are opposed as they believe this would compromise the profession. The article mentions concerns are around independence, confidentiality and loyalty.
Let me provide a different point of view to see if I can get a rise from the readership. I am an accountant and have worked at a large CPA firm and previous to that a large law firm. I was scrutinized more in the CPA firm having to sign off on quarterly statements verifying my independence of any clients, I was loyal and confidentiality of client privileged information, in my opinion, is just as important with CPA clients as it is with law clients.
The article does say that there is a new proposal that would have some restrictions on voting rights, and that financial interests in the firm would have to be handled by lawyers. CPAs would be able to work on their clients and lawyers on theirs. These are very interesting times.
What are your thoughts? Do you think having non-lawyers as owners of law firms compromises the profession?
Posted
Thu, Feb 2 2012 5:24 PM
by
Loretta Ruppert